“X”-ed Out: 10 Questions with… Danny Donovan
By Sean Taylor, Special to the Pulse

The word “almost” can be a painful word to a writer. But Danny Donovan-the hardest working, biggest schmoozing, and most elaborately networked “unknown” in comics-didn’t let it stop him. Pulled from an opportunity to contribute a story to one of the many X-books just as the old order changed at Marvel, he managed to turn adversity into the proverbial triumph.

So, being friends, comics writing peers, and me being one of those people in his elaborate network, Danny and I concocted this scheme for world domination… er, free publicity… er, hard comics journalism and sat down to interview each other about our past and future in the comics field as only two friends could. (Visit the reciprocating interview by clicking here.)

THE PULSE: Tell us a little bit about your work with Committed Comics.

DONOVAN: Well, funny story with that. It was sort of a fortunate happenstance that I came to work for Tom and Alex down at Committed Comics. I was just starting out in the biz, no more than 18 or 19, working for a small press group called Frog Stomp Studios. Sadly the company wasn’t long for the world, but before it imploded, I attempted to save it by suggesting an alliance with Frog Stomp and Committed, after seeing one creative team take their book there.. I talked to Tom, and he asked me to work on his book Threads, so while I was trying to make the imprint thing happen, more people from FSS jumped to Committed and it’s Threads book, and the company died out because of a few things. The publisher was just starting out himself and what happens when you try to learn the comic publishing biz as you go, you wind up going crazy.

But I had settled into my role with Committed Comics. My first story featuring the Black Rider which proved very popular at the company. It had a cover done by inking legend Dick Ayers, whose art graced many Marvel titles in the days of Stan and Jack, and pretty much every western in the glorious golden and silver days of comics owe a lot to Dick’s art.

As things go, the Threads Anthology got changed from a ongoing series to a mini-series, and is presently collected in a nifty trade for about $6.95 so folks can head out to www.committedcomics.com and pick it up. As I said, the book got cut down considerably, so a lot of my shorter stories that I had produced working under the ongoing book before it was cut never made it into the remaining three issues of the mini-series. However, there was one story, “Side-Kicked,”that the Committed Comics president loved so much he wanted included in the trade paperback. So there’s a neat little extra to get people to buy the trade! (insert link http://committedcomics.com/store.htm)

THE PULSE: You were instrumental in putting together the 911 relief book. What was that experience like?

DONOVAN: Well at first it was daunting. I was totally grateful that Neil Klied got Jeff Mason, the publisher of Alternative Comics, involved. Because when it was just Neil, A. Dave Lewis, and myself, calling in favors to friends of ours, it sort of grew far beyond our freelancer status.

When Jeff came on and took the reigns, he brought his insanely talented Alternative Comics crew, and comic book god Will Eisner. And Frank Cho on the cover. Seeing him coordinate all these people all these different voices, all these political differences, and come out of it with a world class book under a tight deadline just showed me how amazing it is seeing a good publisher do their job.

It was a very difficult task because the country and the world was in a very scary place. We didn’t want to be disingenuous because we all just genuinely wanted to do something to help I do recall some squabbles on the multi-send back and forth to the 80 some creators on the book, but we all knew we were doing a good thing, we were the only charity book to be allowed to use the Red Cross logo, and for coming out three months later than the other charity books we raised a lot of money.

I’m only sorry that former Wolverine artist Dan Fraga’s contribution never made it to print because of lateness. But it was great to have him aboard. He’s a great guy and a great talent.

THE PULSE: Rumor has it that you’re one of the most famous "unknowns" in comics. Others say that you're the "almost" guy, hearkening back to your X-Men story that got stuck during the Marvel changeover a few years back. Tell us a little about that experience.

DONOVAN: Well I will tell you, if I wasn’t me, I probably wouldn’t know who I am either. You know it’s something that I think I’ll always hold onto as one of the best and worst things in my career. Best because at age 20 I walked in off the street and got an assignment with the X-Men office working with Mark Powers, who is an amazing editor.

I also made some great friends who have stuck by me in the hardest times, such as Dave Finch and Tom Derenick. If it weren’t for those guys I’d probably be insane. The only reason I say it was “the worst” is because there was a strain on some relationships, one of those things when you hold certain people very high on a pedestal and then the curtain is pulled back and you see they’re just regular people like you and me, it causes disillusionment.

I still have my paycheck with Spider-Man on it framed and matted on my wall as a testament to my accomplishment. There are some great people that I worked with, that are no longer with the company, downsized in one of those industry snafus when the new guys want to distance themselves from the previous administration. A few are still working up there, and I’ve maintained relationships with a few editors.

I’m sorry the story never saw print. But I am so proud getting to that level in a short time, at a young age, and maybe one day I’ll find myself back there. I’m more concerned with telling good stories than what logo is on the cover, but I do love everyone down there at 10 East 40th, and I’d love to work with some of those people sometime in the future.

THE PULSE: What is the great Danny Donovan working on at the moment?

DONOVAN: Well, I’m trying to maintain this group of insane geniuses I like to call Mad Science Studios. Watching James Ritchey, III working on one of the greatest re-launches in the history of comics, the Green Lama for AC Comics, with inker Loki Dolza, and the always lovely Gigi doing colors.

Seeing Ron Fortier, who was interviewed here recently proving the old saying you can’t keep a good man down, and just so much more going on there than I have room to talk about.

Presently, personally, I’m developing quite a lot for publication! I’m working with artist Danny Baker on a concept called Tales From The Tomb I’m going to be showing to some cats at Image soon. I had some of the art laying around the table at Heroes Con, and people were just blown away by it. Danny does a great job, and it’s being colored by former NYX colorist Jean-Francois Beauleiu!

There is a small story showing up in October’s Blood Harvest, which is kind of like a souvenir book for the Horror/Comic convention The Spooky/Mighty Mini Con, called Shepard’s Lament, and it’s drawn by rising star Gigi -- so cool you may only know her by one name.

Gigi is also doing the art chores for a manga thing we’re going to show to a very prominent publisher, the book is called Nocturne.

I’m also developing a horror series in the vain of EC Comics, with Cracked artist Dave Newton, called Graveyard Shift.

I also just finished a novel, and it was a ghost written project, but lord knows being a shameless self promoter I’ll point to it when I hear it’s out. I’m also working development with Lee Nordling down at Platinum Studios, and working with former Spawn artist Nat Jones on the sixth issue of Shooting Star Comics Anthology #6.

THE PULSE: Shooting Star Comics, huh? Tell us a little bit about that project you're doing with Nat.

DONOVAN: Oh yeah, the Shooting Star Comics Anthology issue I’m in, is coming out this November with a cover by Mike Grell, who I am a huge fan of. I still have the action figure of the Warlord characters from when I was a kid.

And working with Nat is a dream. He’s a guy who’s work I’ve always admired. It’s a fun little story about Death.. wow, that’s an odd statement.

Essentially, it looks at Death, or the grim reaper not as a specific person or force, but as a job. The story focuses on a daredevil extreme sports star that never felt he had much to live for, which is what drove him so far into risking his neck. Until one day he has an accident and instead of being greeted at the pearly gates, he stands before a guy in a dark robe with a scythe telling him that he has wasted his life. And so he must learn about life in death, as the new Grim Reaper. So he has to go and collect people, young and old, even super heroes, and it’s basically his origin.

THE PULSE: I know you're a big supporter of small press and the small press cons. Why do you feel they're so important to the industry, even when the industry is dominated by the more corporate publishers?

DONOVAN: Well I believe that competition is good. We’re existing in a small pond where only the big fish find success. You have a few hits that break convention and find an audience but there are so many amazing books out there that aren’t household names that should be, but get over shadowed by bigger books of lesser quality.

It’s not to say that I’m anti-mainstream. I like well-produced mainstream books, but it seems to me, that people more often than not, throw things against a wall just to hold onto market share, and out spend smaller guys who just wanna tell a good story.

Small press cons are great because they don’t fall into that trap of snubbing the guys that will sit in artist alley all day long and crank out 200 sketches for free for people who sort of have this “celebrity” attitude.

THE PULSE: You recently began a column at the Mighty Minicon site called Radio Free Comicks. What's up with that?

DONOVAN: Well, Radio Free Comicks is sort of a side project of Mad Science Studios. It’s a grass roots movement that tries to unite, fans, publishers, and retailers big and small to try to even the playing field and give people doing good work a thumbs up and a way to connect with their audience via the web. We’re supposed to have a website up shortly. It’ll encompass both the Radio Free Comicks movement and the Mad Science Studios official site.

The column came about when Rick from Mighty Minicon e-mailed me and said “why aren’t you freelance writing for me? I’m starting to expand the convention website and looking for columnists” so after hearing about Rick’s ORCA movement which is in the same vain of RFC, I just decided a monthly RFC “manifesto” would be perfect. People can check out http://www.mightyminicon.com and click the column section and find me along with several other awesome columnists.

THE PULSE: Tell us what your dream hook up for writing comics would be? Which artists or writers have you not yet worked with but would love to?

DONOVAN: You know down deep, I’d love to finally do that New Warriors thing with Jeremy Rock we pitched some time ago. It was crazy how many people took to it, (just not the ones who were in the position to publish it!) it spawned two independent fan websites with absolutely no involvement from me or JRock aside from answering a few questions we got e-mailed.

But Jeremy’s happy at Avatar. So it’s probably one of those things that was insanely fun to do that we probably will never get to do. My overall dream job? That’s hard. I have a lot. I mean Superman for one. I love the Superman character, and I’d kill to do anything with him.

I’d love to go back to the X-Men. Get the aforementioned Tom Derenick or Dave Finch on it and just go all out. Tom I almost got a chance to do something with when we pitched that cloak and dagger story.

I’d love to work with Dave Cockrum who I had a close call with a few years ago on a Storm concept. I finally got a chance to meet him face to face at Heroes, and it was just amazing. He’s an awesome guy, I’m just sorry Paty stayed home that day. Although I will take her up on that invite to drop by if I’m in the area.

One project that would be awesome to do would be Sentinels of Magic for Vertigo. All the magical characters fighting demons and what-not. It could be an awesome horror/fantasy title.

THE PULSE: Out of all the small press work you've do so far, what has meant the most to you? Which stories stand out in your history as your favorite experiences?

DONOVAN: The death story in Shooting Star Anthology #6 honestly. Seeing Nat’s amazing work, it was a lot of fun to do, and a lot of fun to work on and I hope everyone out there snags a copy in November and enjoys it

THE PULSE: Any last words of wisdom to impart to the masses?

DONOVAN: In the words of the prophets Bill S. Preston Esq. and Ted “Theodore” Logan, “Be excellent to each other!” And seeing as how my birthday was on the 19th of last month (I’m old, I turned 24) another slogan comes to mind. “Party on, dudes.”